St Hilda's students vote to admit men

Students at Oxford's last women's college have voted narrowly for the first time to admit men, paving the way for a formal decision later this year.

But opponents of the move, who have fought off a series of previous attempts to make St Hilda's College mixed, say the battle is not over yet. They say it will make Oxford's poor record on appointing women academics even worse.

A two-thirds majority of the governing body is required to change the college statutes to admit men for the first time since its foundation in 1893 - and both supporters and opponents of the principal, Lady Judith English, expect the vote to be extremely close.

The main driver is financial. St Hilda's finds it expensive to maintain academic staff, especially in the sciences, because the central university does not fund joint appointments that are not open to both sexes.

Cambridge, which has three flourishing women's colleges - Newnham, New Hall and Lucy Cavendish , funds its academics in a way that does not disadvantage single sex colleges.

Last week the student body (junior common room) of St Hilda's voted 55% in favour of the student body being mixed and 77% in favour of the academic fellows being mixed.

Students had received a report on the future of the college stating: "It is accepted that our current situation places real financial burdens on the college and cannot be sustained under the present arrangement for association with university lecturerships."

A statement from Lady English said: "This poll follows a debate and a series of discussions of the topic during Hilary term and the outcome is important but will not in itself determine the future of the college. Only the members of the governing body who are the trustees of the college, can vote to change the statutes to admit men and no date has been set for a vote in the governing body."

But the student vote could be important in influencing a close battle among the dons. In 2003 the college governing body twice voted narrowly against Lady English's plans to go mixed - one fellow cut short a trip to China to cast her vote against the change.

Claire Lynch, the president of the middle common room, which represents postgraduate students at the college, said St Hilda's had not kicked up enough of a fuss about the funding arrangements for lecturers with the university.

She said only 8.6% of professors and 23% of lecturers at Oxford were female and it was important to have a group of female role models running a college. "Not just outstanding women, but women who are successful, who teach, publish and have families - that's a powerful for us to be part of the college," said Ms Lynch.

She added: "It's so close - it really will come down to one or two people changing their votes or not."